GDUSA Green Newsletter

February 2012

CELEBRITY GUIDANCE

On 30 Rock, one of the characters states that celebrities
are important because without them to tell us, we
wouldn’t know how to vote. There is a bit of that
thinking creeping into green marketing as well. Jessica
Alba is the latest celebrity – think Colin Firth,
Elizabeth Hurley, Justin Timberlake, Sting, Soleil Moon
Frye – to leverage “star power” to
launch an eco-business around her “personal
brand.” The Honest Company, at Honest.com, offers
“eco-friendly family essentials” through a
monthly subscription service. Alba created the company
“to help moms and to give all children a better,
safer start.” I intended to be snarky when I started
writing this, because it sounds so pretentious. But in
researching the story, I found that Alba actually is
knowledgeable about the issues, really has had input
into the products, packaging and marketing, and consistently
supports worthwhile causes. So no snark attack. And,
after all, there are worse things than participating in the Holly-weird culture; she could be a member of Congress for example.

— Gordon Kaye

IBM TOPS NEWSWEEK’S GREENEST
Newsweek’s annual Green Rankings seek to cut through
the green clutter and compare actual footprints, management
policies, and reporting practices of big companies. Here are
a few highlights. The top five ranked companies globally
are: Munich Re, IBM, National Australia Bank, Bradesco, and
ANZ Banking Group. In the U.S., technology, healthcare and
financial services companies took the top spots, partly
because these are inherently low-impact industries, when
compared with, say, utility companies. Among the top five
are IBM, HP, Sprint Nextel, Baxter, and Dell. Office Depot
is the only retailer to score in the U.S. top 10 and Adobe
is the graphics star with a ranking of 14 domestically.
Shifting the prism, which companies are at the bottom? The
coveted “Least Green” rankings go to T. Rowe
Price, BlackRock, Monsanto, Invesco, CONSOL Energy, and
ADM. Those at the bottom are either in traditionally “dirty” industries. Or they are
financial-services companies whose investment portfolios
include companies engaged in environmentally damaging
activities, such as coal mining or gas drilling, and
the rankings take this into account.READ MORE >

FREE WEBINAR!
DESIGNING UNDER PRESSURE

GDUSA + Wacom present an informative webinar that pushes back the barriers of conventional design. It is the third in a very popular series of absolutely free webinars specifically for designers.

See how today’s leading graphic applications have been designed specifically to take advantage of the pen tablet using Adobe® Photoshop® and many other apps.

Take a (short) break from the pressures of your day-to-day workflow and learn how you can make pressure work for you! The date is February 28.

GREEN IS CUE FOR FRESH FOODS
Duane Reade collaborated with CBX, its creative retail
brand partner, to develop the name, look and feel for
UpMarket Fro-Yo, yet another offering in the fresh food
offering space. The UpMarket sub brand made its debut last
year at the chain’s Wall Street location near the
sushi bar and juice bar. It’s a continuation of
the chain’s strategy to develop neighborhood-centric
niche offerings emphasizing health and freshness. The
contemporary design epitomizes the quintessential New
York feel with the application of black and white subway
tiles and introduces a new signature color of green to
indicate an expansion of the fresh food offerings. Playful
language punctuated by an edgy tone is complemented with
graphic icons that speak to the various activities and
places people usually enjoy while eating frozen yogurt
including bike rides, ice skating, ball games and the beach

BRINGING BIRDWATCHING ONLINE
Birdwatching hit the internet in a big way this past
winter as Audubon launched an extensive social media
campaign, Birding the Net. And the social media campaign,
by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, will accept a
National PR Award next month. Visitors to over 100
websites encountered unexpected avian visitors. The
social media campaign was timed with the release of
20th Century Fox’s The Big Year, about competitive
birdwatching. “Birds are the best possible ambassadors
for the environment, and this will help people see them
in a whole new way,” said David Yarnold, President
& CEO of Audubon. At the time of its release, Jeff
Goodby described the campaign as combining “bird
preservation, education and alluring animation in an
addictive experience that spreads across the Internet.”

QUOTE OF THE MONTH“What we need most of
all from government – at all
levels – is leadership. Specifically, we need
leaders who can inspire us with a vision of what's
possible, a story of what happens if we get things
right. A story of economic recovery, job creation,
innovation, healthier communities, energy and housing
security, and all the rest – all stemming from a
transition away from fossil fuels. I don't see anyone
telling that story. I had hoped that President Obama
would, because I believe he understands that vision.
But he hasn't been willing or able to go there.”

– Joel Makower in Mother Nature News, 1/30/12

GORDON KAYE IS THE LATEST...

...GDUSA staffer to appear
(as an extra) in an original online
comedy series Waiting On Others.

L’OREAL FLIPS OVER PACKAGE
Beauty and cosmetics brand, L’Oreal, has
redesigned the bottles for its Pureology brand
professional hair products. Hoping to combine
sustainable packaging with the kind of sleek look
demanded by the beauty industry, the products have
been literally flipped over onshelf and are contained
in pearlescent toned, multi-tasking bottles in order
to reflect their 100% vegan formulation. Robert
Bergman of Mpact – a former L’Oreal
creative director – executed new graphics
and developed the curved set of bottles that are
manufactured from a single mold. Explains Bergman:
“L’Oreal wanted the new Pureology bottle
to appear organic and natural in form, while looking
different from all other salon products.” He
describes the result as a bottle shape that is
“organically professional.” Other attributes:
they are designed for zero waste – to expunge
every last ounce of shampoo and conditioner out of
the bottle – and they’re 100% recyclable.

LOVE IS IN THE (CLEAN) AIR
Valentine’s Day may have recently passed, but
green is the new red. Or so say the results of
Timberland’s Eco-Love Survey released this month,
revealing that 77 percent of people regard eco-consciousness
as an appealing trait in a potential mate, while 50 percent
of Americans are attracted to those who practice
eco-friendly behavior around the house such as conserving
water, recycling and turning off the lights. The online
poll surveyed over 1000 men and women 18 years of age or
older. Timberland took the survey findings to the next level,
partnering with dating gurus from the free dating site
OKCupid to create the Timberland Green Guide to Dating and
Love, full of tips for those on the hunt for their eco-sweetheart.

THE NATURE OF DESIGN
Design by Nature, written by graphic designer and
educator Maggie Macnab, is an eclectic journey that
examines the versatility of nature, and how nature’s
ingenuity can inspire compelling designed communications.
Macnab has been creating logos and designs since the early
1980s, fueled by a passion for nature, design and creative
problem-solving. Written for designers and creative
thinkers, the book uses clear explanations, examples, and
hands-on exercises to explore the natural processes that
consist of everyday patterns and shapes often taken for
granted, but are effective in visual messaging. Debbie
Millman wrote the foreword.
LEARN MORE >

GDUSA’s INHOUSE AWARDS...
...competition is now open for entries. The American
Inhouse Design Awards is the premier showcase for
outstanding work by inhouse designers at companies
and institutions.The 2012 mission: to underscore the
value of the inhouse department clients, colleagues
and upper management.

MENTHLAB GENERATES IDEAS
The latest effort of Legacy, the antitobacco education
foundation – best known for its “Truth”
ad campaign targeted to teen smokers – involved
convening designers, health experts, entrepreneurs,
entertainers, and community activists in Detroit for a
summit to address the danger of menthol cigarettes in
urban communities. The workshop, dubbed MenthLab and held
at the College for Creative Studies, sought to generate
grassroots ideas for products that would appeal to teens
and steer them clear of menthol cigs – “the
cancer stick of choice for many African-American
adolescents.” Legacy CMO Eric Asche had become
increasingly alarmed by menthol cigarettes' seductive
power over youth. Over the course of a week, MenthLab
participants brainstormed more than 100 ideas for
services, events, and products – many branded
with a mint-green hue. Among the highlights: Adam and
Marty Butler of Butler Bros., an Austin creative firm
with a focus on cause marketing, pitched the idea of
a line of products or events that would be co-created
with the communities that smoke the most menthol. A
dozen or so concepts were prototyped, and Legacy plans
to launch some of them soon. Asche says the power of
design brings an engaging weapon to the fight.